The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional multi-pin feed-through 10 of the type having a compression seal and designed for use in a hermetically sealed electric device includes a metal housing 11 and a plurality of conductive pins 16. The metal housing 11 includes a peripheral portion 12 and a central portion 14. The central portion 14 defines a plurality of apertures to receive associated conductive pins 16. A plurality of glass beads 18 are inserted into the plurality of apertures and fused to the conductive pins 16 and the central portion 14 to provide an airtight bond. The resulting glass-to-metal seal hermetically seals the associated conductive pins 16 to the central portion 14.
A conventional multi-pin feed-through similar to that shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,440 (“the '440 patent”). See, e.g., FIGS. 3A and 3B of the '440 patent. As disclosed in the '440 patent, the feed-through 10 may be mounted to a hermetically sealed device (not shown in FIG. 1) such as a hard disk drive, for example, so that one of the ends of the conductive pins 16 are located inside the hermetically sealed device and others of the ends of the conductive pins 16 are located outside the hermetically sealed device.
In manufacturing the typical feed-through of FIG. 1, positioning the large number (for example, twenty-eight) of conductive pins 16 and their associated glass beads 18 relative to the central portion 14 of the metal housing 11 is difficult and time-consuming. Further, the sizes of the individual glass beads 18 are limited by the spacing between the conductive pins 16 and the walls of the apertures. If a conductive material is undesirably trapped in the individual glass beads 18 during the manufacturing process, the trapped conductive material may adversely affect the electrical insulation of the conductive pins 16 from the metal insert 14 due to the short distance therebetween.